Associate in Biological News

Scientists associate 6 new genetic variants with heart disease risk factor

Using new techniques for rapidly scanning the human genome, researchers have associated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, two fats in the blood, to 18 genetic variants, six of which represent new DNA regions never before associated with the traits. The findings, appearing in the January 13 ...

Advances in lung cancer research announced at conference

...Healthcare this week announced two significant advances in treating lung cancer at an international cancer research conference. Dr. Weiss, M.D., an associate Investigator in TGen's Cancer and Cell Biology Division and Director of Thoracic Oncology at TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare,...

Climate-caused biodiversity booms and busts in ancient plants and mammals

...e changes in land mammal diversity. "Our paper documents the fact that global change affected plants and animals on a wide scale," said Gunnell, an associate research scientist and vertebrate collection coordinator at the U-M Museum of Paleontology. "Some plants and animals flourished while others suffered....

More than half of Texas physicians do not always recommend HPV vaccine to girls

... study suggests that additional efforts are needed to encourage physicians to follow these national recommendations," said Jessica Kahn, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been mired in co...

Women often opt to surgically remove their breasts, ovaries to reduce cancer risk

...who have participated in a very comprehensive and well thought-out genetic counseling, testing and management program," said Claudine Isaacs, M.D., an associate professor of medicine and co-director of the Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University...

Beautiful plumage: Feather color and sex start the species revolution

...rding to a report in the American Naturalist -- selected and reviewed by Faculty of 1000 member Rebecca Kilner (University of Cambridge) along with associate Rose Thorogood -- this tiny genetic difference can potentially lead to the evolution of new species. Two Monarcha castaneiventris sub-species ha...

Fossil plants bring Wilf distinguished speaker honor

... Peter Wilf, associate professor of geosciences, has been named distinguished speaker for fall 2009 through fall 2012 by the Paleontological Society. The Paleontological ...

Stem cell 'daughters' lead to breast cancer

... cancer. Women with BRCA1 mutations often develop 'basal-like' breast cancer, which is a particularly aggressive form of the disease. A team led by associate Professors Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman from the institute's Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium Laboratory have discovered that luminal p...

Study links virus to some cases of common skin cancer

...revalent than we initially thought." To learn if people with SCC harbored the virus, Toland, working closely with first author and graduate research associate Amy Dworkin and Ohio State pathologists O. Hans Iwenofu and Sara B. Peters, examined DNA samples from SCC tumors; from normal-appearing skin adjacent ...

Douglas-fir, geoducks make strange bedfellows in studying climate change

...regon State University. Black has been applying tree-ring techniques to the growth increments of long-lived marine and freshwater species. "When we associate rings from one species with known sea surface temperatures, we can account for almost 50 percent of the variability in the instrument records," Black ...

Nanoparticle-delivered 'suicide' genes slowed ovarian tumor growth

...ant doses of cisplatin and paclitaxel. Edward Sausville, M.D., Ph.D., an associate editor of Cancer Research and associate director for clinical research at the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the Unive...

Little-known protein found to be key player

...a previously undocumented way. "If you'd asked me a year ago whether this was possible, I would have said, 'No,'" said study co-author James McNew, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University. "In fact, that's exactly what I told (co-author) Andrea Daga when we first spoke about ...

Reprogramming human cells without inserting genes

...s were not being translated into the proteins that do the work of making cells pluripotent. "This was quite unexpected," said Tanja Dominko, DVM, PhD, associate professor of biology and biotechnology at WPI and president of CellThera. "Not only does this data force us to rethink what the true markers of plurip...

Fox Chase researchers uncover one force behind the MYC oncogene in many cancers

...tudies demonstrated that expression of the protein encoded by the DLX5 gene correlated with that of the MYC gene, Testa and Jinfei Xu, PhD, a research associate in the laboratory, used a luciferase assay developed from the luciferase enzyme fireflies use to make light to see exactly where DLX5 protein binds ...

UBC researchers help push for standard DNA barcodes for plants

...this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . "It's a pragmatic first step in solving a complex issue," says UBC botanist and associate Professor Sean Graham, who conducted research on the project and helped author the study. "We've selected areas of DNA that are available in the vast ...

Key OSU water research receives national funding

...he magnitude of their impact is not well understood. We believe this is an important study to help the state plan for the future." Clarence Watson, associate director of the statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, said the study is a great example of the division's commitment to its land-...

Placenta-derived stem cells may help sufferers of lung diseases

...ve useful for cell therapy of fibrotic diseases in the future," concludes Dr. Parolini. Dr. Cesar Borlongan, of the University of South Florida and associate editor for Cell Transplantation, notes that the present study adds an important application of placenta cells, indicating their therapeutic effects in...

ISU researchers find possible treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

... AMES, Iowa - Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the world. Ravindra Singh, associate professor in biomedical sciences at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, would like to see Spinal Muscular Atrophy lose its high ra...

New supercomputer to reel in answers to some of Earth's problems

...upercomputer will provide scientists from academia, national laboratories, and industry with an unprecedented research tool," said Anna Palmisano, DOE associate Director for Biological and Environmental Research. "This new supercomputer will allow scientists to develop a molecular-level understanding of the co...

Early detection and quick response are key to defense against anthrax attack

...alysis shows that time-to-treatment is roughly twice as important as the duration of the distribution program," says lead author Dr. Nathaniel Hupert, associate professor of public health and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Crucial to rapidly implementing a treatment program is early detection,...

Grant supports LSUHSC research on how like cell receptor systems determine very different functions

... New Orleans, LA Andy Catling, PhD, associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded a $177,...

Newly discovered gene fusion may lead to improved prostate cancer diagnosis

...ailored therapies for their patients by avoiding the trial and error that is often associated with cancer treatments," says Dr. Rubin, who is also the associate director of translational research and a pathologist at the Weill Cornell Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center....

Scientists discover gene mutation responsible for hereditary neuroendocrine tumor

...fects in mitochondria, the power sources of the cell, have been implicated in a variety of human disorders, including cancer," says Jared Rutter, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah School of Medicine, investigator at the University's Huntsman Cancer Institute, and lead author of...

LSUHSC shows for first time infant inhalation of ultrafine air pollution linked to adult lung disease

... New Orleans, LA Stephania Cormier, PhD, associate Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has shown for the first time that early exposure to environmentally persistent fr...

Warming climate threatens California fruit and nut production

...e Luedeling, a postdoctoral fellow in UC Davis' Department of Plant Sciences and UC Davis graduate Evan H. Girvetz, who is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington, Seattle. Their study will appear July 22 in the online journal PLoS ONE . The study is the first to map winter ch...

Tires made from trees -- better, cheaper, more fuel efficient

...ncy than traditional tires in hot weather. "We were surprised at how favorable the results were for the use of this material," said Kaichang Li, an associate professor of wood science and engineering in the OSU College of Forestry, who conducted this research with graduate student Wen Bai. "This could le...

University of Minnesota research leads to new technology to protect human health

...ne of the C-N bonds in melamine to release ammonia, which can be detected by a simple test that turns the liquid blue. Jennifer Seffernick, a research associate in Wackett's lab, discovered the enzyme while conducting research on biodegradation of s-triazine herbicides. It is one of many examples of how basic ...

Ethiopian government celebrates rinderpest eradication

...tein International Center (FIC) and the Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) will participate in the celebration. Jeffrey Mariner, DVM, research associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at TUSM, repurposed a rinderpest vaccine that could be transported to rural areas wit...

Iowa State University researchers develop process for 'surgical' genetic changes

... a process that will make genetic changes in plant genes much more efficient, practical and safe. The breakthrough was developed by David Wright, an associate scientist, and Jeffery Townsend, an assistant scientist, and allows targeted genetic manipulations in plant DNA, which could have a huge impact on pla...

University of Miami receives stimulus funds for study of hurricane impacts on structures, ecosystems

...d States it is expected that by 2025 nearly 75 percent of the population will live in a coastal area," said SUSTAIN Principal Investigator Brian Haus, associate professor of Applied Marine Physics and director of UM's Air-Sea Interaction Saltwater (ASIST) Facility. "Developing a more complete understanding of ...

A global model for the origin of species independent of geographical isolation

... In a new study, "Global patterns of speciation and diversity," just published in Nature , Les Kaufman, Boston University professor of biology and associate director of the BU Marine Program along with a team of researchers from The New England Complex Systems Institute, have collaborated and found a way t...

Reviews of microbial gene language published in special issue of Trends in Microbiology

...escriptions of bacterial effector proteins, virulence factors, effector protein delivery systems, and infection by filamentous pathogens. Joo Setubal, associate Professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, remarked: "Symbiotic microbes have developed many ingenious ways to deliver effector molecules int...

LincRNAs serve as genetic air-traffic controllers

... as genetic air traffic controllers," explains co-senior author John Rinn, PhD, a Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Pathology at BIDMC and associate Member of the Broad Institute. "It has long been a mystery as to how widely expressed proteins shape the fate of cells. How does the same protein kno...

Early-life experience linked to chronic diseases later in life: UBC research

...ls inflammation. "We've identified some 'biologic residue' of people's early-life experience that sticks with them into adulthood," says Miller, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and a member of the Brain Research Centre at UBC Hospital. "The study suggests that experiences get under...

K-State plant pathologists develop online teaching modules used globally

...lable to the developing world, while an offshoot project established a statistics workshop offered in early July in Bolivia. Karen Garrett, K-State associate professor of plant pathology, and Lorena Gomez, a master's student in plant pathology at K-State, and their Bolivian collaborators received the Americ...

Baylor researchers unravel mystery of DNA conformation

... "Many models and experiments have been interpreted with the static model," said Dr. Lynn Zechiedrich ( http://www.bcm.edu/molvir/faculty/elz.htm ), associate professor of molecular virology and microbiology at BCM and a senior author of the report. "But this model does not allow for the fact that DNA in rea...

Herbicide diversity needed to keep Roundup effective

...sate-resistant crops has led to weeds, such as marestail, that also are resistant to glyphosate, the herbicide used in Roundup. Bill Johnson, a Purdue associate professor of weed science, said changing management practices can almost eliminate resistant marestail and its viable seeds in the soil. "Another h...

Probiotics help gastric-bypass patients lose weight more quickly, Stanford study shows

... to avoid deficiency of a critical B vitamin. In a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery , John Morton, MD, associate professor of surgery at the medical school, showed that patients who take probiotics after the gastric-bypass procedure tend to shed more pounds than ...

'Show me the money!' MDA greenlights grants

...he progress that has been made to this date is the result of the MDA commitment." At the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, in Ottawa, Ontario, associate Scientific Director Rashmi Kothary will be able to continue his research seeking answers to the biological processes that cause SMA. MDA is awarding K...

Results from trials of DHA in Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline

...Cooperative Study (ADCS), led by Joseph Quinn, MD, associate Professor of Neurology at Oregon Health and Scienc...DAS). Scientists led by Karin Yurko-Mauro, PhD, associate Director of Clinical Research at Martek, conducted...easure was a change from baseline in CANTAB Paired associate Learning (PAL), a visuospatial episodic memory tes...